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My mom is from Chile, and her father passed away almost 20 years ago.
Her sister passed away 6 years ago. (No spouse, no children.)
Neither had written wills.

One of my aunts took charge of both estates. My grandfather's belongings were sold off, and his properties rented out. My mom has received nothing.
Until this year.

They now want to sell the real estate my grandfather owned. Apparently, they tried to sell the properties without my mom’s signature, and were unable to do so. The same aunt started asking my mom for a Power of Attorney, and sent one that had pages missing, etc. My mom had previously given that aunt a POA, and received nothing in return. So, she did not sign it.

They got my mom and I to fly down, saying everything was ready to sign. It wasn’t. They had not done anything to coordinate with the other heirs, they also did not show anyone the documents they wanted everyone to sign at all. They just brought them to the notary. We have yet to receive a copy to read over. Also from the moment we arrived, my aunt's son, kept asking my mom to give his mom Power of Attorney, and they got upset when my mom finally said she’d give it to me, not them.

The only money my mom ended up receiving was what my aunt says is her portion of this year’s property rentals, but not for any previous years’. When we asked about her share of previous years, they again got upset.

Also, that aunt told me, that there was nothing from my deceased aunt’s estate for my mother to receive. But when I asked another of the siblings, they told me that that aunt had divided up the deceased aunt’s monies, and already distributed them.

There is a lot more to tell but...

Long story short. There is something fishy going on here, but with conflicting accounts I am unsure what.

How can we do something about this? And make sure my mom actually gets her fair inheritance?
Can we petition the court to investigate, or appoint someone to take charge? How exactly?

i would say about 9 out of the 10 inheritance cases we handle start out with a similar story when one or more of the family is outside of the country. they all take a crack at trying to pull one over on the other family members.

ironicaly they tend to end up buggering themselves, because chile has mandatpry inheritance laws, and properties become worthless when there is an inheritance that is not handled correctly. i call them "ghost titles" because the only one with clear ownership is a ghost. most buyers won't touch them, and banks won't issue a mortgage for them (locking out about 80% of the market).

don't do or sign anything until you have an attorney representing you.

right now, you have leverage because they have to have your mother's consent to sell the property. once she gives up that, things get very messy, expensive, and slooooow as you have to sue and try to collect what she is owed.

Just realized that Charles had already answered similarly, but whatever....

Inheritance squabbles (sometimes even ending up in fistfights) are very common here. Get some disinterested legal advice, like the law firm that runs this site. Don't believe anything the family tells you and don't let them coerce you or your mother into signing anything. Otherwise they will cheat you.

Family ties count for nothing here when they get in the way of the money.

Thanks for all the replies. Very glad my mom did not end up signing anything.
At this point the situation is so messy that I am wondering if it is best to ask the court system to intervene or find an attorney.
How does one ask the court to appoint someone to manage the estates? And what does it cost?
Is this more costly in the long run than an attorney?
Many thanks!

I read through the Herencias en Chile.
A couple of questions, my grandmother died before my grandfather, also without a will.
Does this mean a portion of the estate passed on to her children (my mom and her siblings) at that time?
In other words if deceased had a spouse and several children, is the estate divided equally between them?
My grandfather had another child after my grandmother passed, would he get same portion as other children?
Thanks!

Maybe I picked the wrong link to read.
From what I read if someone dies without a will.
They go down the list in order.
1st order heirs are spouse and children.
The spouse is entitled to double what any child receives.
So if someone with 3 children and a spouse died.
The spouse would receive 2/5 and each child 1/5 of the estate?

Maybe I picked the wrong link to read.
From what I read if someone dies without a will.
They go down the list in order.
1st order heirs are spouse and children.
The spouse is entitled to double what any child receives.
So if someone with 3 children and a spouse died.
The spouse would receive 2/5 and each child 1/5 of the estate?

gloria. stop giving legal advice on the forum. Posesión Efectiva may not even apply in this case. anytime there is a foriegn inheritor, even just one, it must go through the courts. there is also the issue of your mother's age. courts may require a doctor's certification that she is mentaly fit to consent to all these decisions involved. there are a lot of reasons just running some paper work through the local civil registery is not going to work.

you have to hire an attorney. it is not even optional. there is simply no way you are navigating 400+ years (some of this stuff traces back to the spanish crown and the roman empire) of inheritance law by googling it.

besides the legal issues involved, it typicaly stops the family stupidity, or at least get's it under control. family members typicaly are hoping you are sufficiently ignorant of the process (which you admit you are) to pull one over on you.

wills have very limited effect in chile. you can not for instance write someone out of the will that is a mandatory inheritor via a will.

yes, rights to an estate can be passed down. for example, a mother dies, then the father dies, prior to the mother's estate being settled, the mother's portion could go to the kids (or whomever is thr next mandatory inheritor is) even though the estate is not formaly transfered yet to the father.

i have a suspicion there is something else going on here.

how big is this estate / property are we talking about?

first thing we always do is a cost analysis to see if it is even worth pursuing. makes no sense to say spend 10 million pesos, to get 1 million pesos from a small estate. even on the surface fairly large estates, if there is say 20, 30, 40 inheritors can turn out not to be worth the trouble.

if there is some real estate, given the fairly high price of real estate in chile, it is typicaly worth it; asumming there are not too many inheritors. we once had a case with 60 inheritors. we had to rent a conference room at a local hotel to have a meeting. however even split 60 ways it was a suffiently large estate to justify the costs involved.